Director – George Moise (The Madness of Phil Moise, Schuschgnigg)
Starring – Michael Kopelow (The Stoned Age, The People Under the Stairs), Kerry Knuppe (Voodoo Possession, Gnome Alone), and Devon Ogden (Silent Retreat, Lazarus Rising)
Release Date – 2016
rating – 3/5
And the reviews continue! After checking out some Full Moon horror comedies and the outrageous Sexsquatch films I ventured into the darker side of horror with Confessions of a Homicidal Prostitute. By this point I had some what overdone the horror and decided to step away from it a little so I checked out Jekyll and Hyde…Together Again which was sent to me from my friends over at Olive Films. After checking it out I thought I would continue with another non-horror flick.
This time I set my sights on the Artsploitation Films release of Counter Clockwise. I was very interested in this sci-fi action film centered around time travel. I want to thank Artsploitation for sending this one my way. Appreciate it.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows scientist Ethan Walker (Kopelow) has been working on time travel in his lab with his assistant for some time now. He is now up to running trials on his dog but something happens during one trial and the dog never shows. He goes into the machine to find it and finds himself somewhere in the future where his wife and sister are both found dead and he is the only suspect. He sets out in motion to prevent their murders but discovers a web of lies that goes blood deep.**Spoiler Alert**
Before I go any further I feel as if I need to profess my love for Back to the Future. If I had to pick one movie to watch over and over until I die it would be one of the first two Back to the Future films. I wouldn’t say that I have an interest in time travel but watching these films on repeat as a child and staying up late at night fantasizing about what it would be like to time travel and repercussions that would follow. I was hoping that Counter Clockwise would show the amount if imagination that Back to the Future does. Sadly, it did not. It was entertaining but was lacking certain qualities.
The acting in this one is solid but no one was striving for perfection. Michael Kopelow has had a pretty solid career after appearing in People Under the Stairs and The Stoned Age so he knows a thing or two about acting. However, he was not very convincing in his performance here. Granted, most of the film is him running but his character was not very convincing and the dialogue was not that genuine. I really wanted to like him and his performance but he wasn’t able to pull me in. The remainder of the cast does a solid job as well and are a little more convincing but the characters are not that enjoyable. The viewer has no one to root for or to support.
The story for this one is simple but the way it was executed results in a rather complex film that is very bold for the budget. The film is very repetitive and at the half way mark it starts to lose the viewers. The story is great in theory but becomes stale by the halfway mark. Finally, the film does have a few hitman style kill scenes. The effects are great for the style of kill we get but for those wanting a body count will be disappointed. Overall, Counter Clockwise is an ambitious film that could have been amazing but quickly finds itself in a loop that becomes very boring. The film entertains for the most part but will try the viewer’s patience.
